Welcome to “Emmys Evaluated,” a series that looks at the nominations and wins in the television industry’s foremost awards ceremony and performs some revisionist history to retroactively pick the winners from the categories and nominees the The Television Academy selected.

A significant change for the categorization of the 9th Emmy Awards meant that a fewer spread of shows ended up nominated. Instead of recognizing the best shows of 1956 by genre, as it had done for previous years, The Television Academy instead distinguished nominees by length: half hour or less and one hour or more. …

Note: This is the hundred-and-fifty-seventh in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at Mubi, showcasing five films per year. All this being explained, what follows is an examination of my second favorite 1930 film, THE BLUE ANGEL, directed by Josef von Sternberg.

I’ve written about director Josef von Sternberg and actress Marlene Dietrich’s second collaboration together, MOROCCO, their first in America after the…

Welcome to “Emmys Evaluated,” a series that looks at the nominations and wins in the television industry’s foremost awards ceremony and performs some revisionist history to retroactively pick the winners from the categories and nominees the The Television Academy selected.

After the relative import of the previous ceremony, the 8th Emmy Awards played like a relatively trimmed down part two. It was broadcast nationally once again, the ceremony hosted by Art Linkletter and John Charles Daly from the Pan Pacific Auditorium on March 17, 1956, but I wasn’t able to track down a record of it like I was able…

Note: This is the hundred-and-fifty-sixth in a series of historical/critical essays examining the best in film from each year. Essentially, I am watching films from the beginning of cinematic history that interest me and/or hold some critical or cultural impact. My personal, living list of favorites is being created at Mubi, showcasing five films per year. All this being explained, what follows is an examination of my favorite 1930 film, MOROCCO, directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Love for one who does not love you, and in fact loves another, is an exquisite pain. It makes some lash out, some turn…

Welcome to “Emmys Evaluated,” a series that looks at the nominations and wins in the television industry’s foremost awards ceremony and performs some revisionist history to retroactively pick the winners from the categories and nominees the The Television Academy selected.

The 7th Emmy Awards, held on March 7, 1955, was the biggest one yet for the relatively fledgling Television Academy. Hosted by Steve Allen on the West Coast, and supported by a simultaneous ceremony on the East Coast, the awards show recognizing the best in television of 1954 was broadcast via its home medium nationally for the first time (it…

After the pared down 2nd Academy Awards, the 3rd Oscars, as the awards show would come to be known, expanded the categories from seven to a whopping eight. It was a slight acceleration after just seven months; 1930 was the only year in which two Academy Awards ceremonies were held, to keep up with the eligibility period that was now established. The 3rd Academy Awards honored the best in film released from August 1, 1929 to July 31, 1930, and as sound films quickly improved, so too did the slate of nominees on offer.

Matinee idol Conrad Nagel hosted the…

The DC Extended Universe (DCEU, an unofficial name) was the result of an apparently spontaneous attempt on Warner Bros.’ part to compete with Disney’s immensely popular and (mostly) consistently entertaining Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). These “shared-universe” comic book franchises have fairly been criticized for their dominance of the motion picture industry. But for as much as I intellectually recognize the issues presented by these kinds of films, I also grew up with comic books, and in my need-for-comfort moments, many superhero blockbusters will do. However, much of the DCEU does not fit that bill. I wrote “spontaneous” earlier because this…

Australian group-turned-duo The Avalanches are plunderphonics’ celebrated practitioners. Plunderphonics! I learned that word recently! Basically, The Avalanches are samplers extraordinaires, moving from the Beastie Boys riffing on their debut EP EL PRODUCTO (1997, not ranked here) to the high acclaim of the SINCE I LEFT YOU symphony. But after its release in 2000, primary forces Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi (currently The Avalanches’ only members) were in a state of constant flux, working on new music here and there but not releasing another album until 2016’s WILDFLOWER, which as you might expect, was highly anticipated. With the release of…